ANA Marketing Maestros

Stengel - Communications Specialist in Demand

By Will Waugh

We recently interviewed Jim Stengel, P&G's Global Marketing Officer, for an upcoming publication we have coming out tentatively titled Marketing Thought Leaders: Conquering the Growth Frontier. When asked for his predictions on specialized positions for the new marketing world, he only gave one - a communications specialist role. I thought the definition for this was interesting so I thought I'd share it:

It's someone who is a bit of a consumer researcher and a bit of an advertising agency planner type - someone who is an integrated thinker; someone who understands the communications world. And I think someone who also understands the content world. It's a much more complex planning skill -- strategic thinking you might call it.

There you have it. The world's top marketer on what sort of skill sets a new marketer needs to have. I have talked about content as a killer app  as well as the renaissance marketer and how these traits are neccesary components of the evolving marketing world. The challenge, of course, is finding the talented individuals with a varied skill set across this spectrum. 

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Bob Wehling - Lessons Learned from a Marketing Legend

By Barbara Bacci Mirque

I am fortunate enough to meet the top marketers in the world through my employment at the ANA. Every day is an incredible learning experience for me as I interact with these marketing mavens. But I don’t just learn about marketing from them – I learn about leadership. One of the marketers with whom I have interacted at the ANA was just inducted into the AAF Advertising Hall of Fame. Bob Wehling, former Global Marketing Officer at The Procter & Gamble Company, accomplished many things in his 41 years at P&G but counts among his most cherished accomplishments marrying Carolyn and being the father of six daughters - and now the grandfather of 23. There he learned true insights about marketing to women, he said at his induction ceremony on March 20. He is also very proud of his community service work, particularly in the area of education and children’s issues.

One of the most compelling things I have heard about Bob from folks who were lucky enough to work with him or for him, is how he started every meeting with the question - "What can I do for you today?" Here is a person at the top of his game, commanding hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing spend, who was seeking to help those with whom he came in contact. That is the leadership lesson we can all take back from Bob Wehling. Similarly, what struck me as I listened to the biographies of each inductee was how they all seemed to have a similar style to Bob and were more concerned about others than themselves and their own career trajectory. So that is a key success attribute we can all start employing in our interactions with our staffs and marketing partners. I can’t wait for the folks who work for me to fall off of their chairs when I start a meeting with that line! You can read their inspirational stories and learn more about Bob and the other Hall of Fame inductees at this marvelous website.

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Marketing is #2 on Bright New Careers List

By Will Waugh

I wasn't looking but it popped up on my Yahoo! home page this morning. Seven Bright Careers for 2007 and Beyond highlights Marketing at #2 right after Physician Assistant:

This isn't your grandma's advertising. Today's marketers are developing business strategies in a rapidly changing media environment. To keep up with the media revolution, many businesses are hiring 'new media marketing coordinators' and 'marketing media strategists.'

I am not sure what my "grandma's advertising" was but this excerpt is spot on with indicators we are seeing from ANA members.

Pontiac's Online Marketing Success

By Will Waugh

We always like to point out our members that showcase exceptional marketing in a complex environment. The U.S. auto market is going through a bit of an adjustment (understatement of the year) as they compete in a viscious market. Pontiac's marketing has not missed a beat. American Copywriter brought to my attention a bold move into MySpace to market the G5:

The premise is this, when/if you buy a new Pontiac G5, go to the MySpace page and register the car. When you do that, you'll get a "Friends with Benefits" debit card. The more people that buy a car and register, the more money is put onto the card (up to $1,000, which would be 1,000 people).

The G5 is already being marketed to the younger crowd, so a MySpace presence is a must. In addition, they're speaking to a crowd that likes the incentive of extra money.

Pontiac has led the way in to new and experimental media with gusto. Their mindset appears to be "I know we need to be there. There might be risks but we are confident there will be more upside than downside" Mark-Hans Richer and his team deserve alot of credit for their forays into branded entertainment, Second Life and online-marketing only product launches like the G5. With car companies like GM making adjustments to their spend to compete in the fragmented marketing world, it is nice to see companies like Pontiac making the most of their marketing dollars.

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Private Equity to Save Marketing?

By Will Waugh

Normally I don't comment on AdAge articles, but the article this morning titled 'How private equity is reshaping marketing' (sub req'd) struck a cord. Why? Some of the key points:

• Accountability - This has been the #1 issue for marketers for three years running now. This quote by 2x Management's Andy Whitman says it all: "The fact that private-equity marketing executives are compensated based mainly on profit and enterprise value also helps solve marketing's return-on-investment problem."
• Marketing Talent - Another challenge for our CMOs and senior marketers. Our Annual Conference keynote, AG Lafley, said that private equity is his largest competitor for talent. Marketing recruiter Barbara Pickens said, "Five years ago it was almost never part of the conversation." Innovation and accountability are the two most valuable traits of today's marketer (in a nutshell). Perhaps by seeing the talent drain to industries like private equity, brands and companies will hold a higher value on their marketing brain trust.
• Agency Compensation - This one is close to us as our 14th triennial agency compensation survey results come out in May. In the face of a changing marketing model, private equity is buying up specialized shops, adjusting them for this new world and offering them to the highest bidder. Advertiser's issues with agency overhead, agency executive compensation and the like become moot points because these shops are reorganized for efficiency. Value based deals (which we are seeing more and more of) hold long term value to private equity firms because they are not one-off deals.

Technorati tags: private equity marketing accountability talent